The good news for fans of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series is that J.J. Abrams is interested in bringing the seven volume series to life. The bad news is we’ll have to wait until “Lost” is wrapped before Abrams can turn his attention to the best-selling novels.
“The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at. And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton [Cuse] and I are bringing “Lost” to a close is simply not viable,” Abrams told AMC.Â
“There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun,” he continued. “If The Dark Tower were in the right hands, I would love to see seven movies executed just right. But you have to get people to see the first one to get them to come and see the second one.”
But before “Dark Tower” gets off the ground, Abrams will be overseeing two high-profile projects, “Lost” and next year’s “Star Trek.”
Talking about the “Trek” franchise, Abrams says that he has worked to show “real reverance” for the original material and that when he started the project, he looked at the state of “Trek” to determine how to approach the material.
I think it’s like how with Batman, it got to the point where there was more press about the nipples on the Batsuit than there was about the characters, and the franchise needed a reboot,” Abrams said.
“It’s an incredibly ambitious movie on a technical scale. I can say with confidence that we achieved what we set out to achieve, and that’s all you can ask for,” he added.”
As for the on-going controversy over whether or not William Shatner should appear as Captain James T. Kirk in the film, Abrams said, “Mr. Shatner created Kirk, so I understand and sympathize with his feelings about what his role — or lack of a role — in our movie was. That being said, Kirk died; he fell down a cliff face. That made it incredibly challenging for us to tell the story we wanted to tell and figure out a way for William Shatner, who is now several years older than Kirk was when he died, to be in the movie.”
Too many times movies based on books turn into a disaster. I really really hope that Abrams stays close to what was written, because I love the Dark Tower series and don’t want to see it get butchered.
I don’t see what the big deal is about doing these movies. if lord of the rings, and star wars, all the movies like that can be produced, why is there such fuss about the dark tower? there is a huge fan base for these stories, and the people who have read them would love nothing more than to see it come to life on screne. if abrams doesn’t want to do it because he feels it’s to big of a task he should give to someone who does.
PLEASE bring the Dark Tower to life …. I can not wait to see it. I really hope not to be disappointed with the casting, My experience has been that once I’ve read the book I have my own personal image of the characters and no live cast (no matter how well chosen) can ever compare to what my imagination has given me…I look forward to the movie anyway
It would be difficult to cram all those books together..but who knows.
they filmed all three Lord of the Rings novels at once, altough seven Dark Tower novels would be a massive undertaking.
Ok, Dark Tower movies! I say awesome, they will never be as good as the books and the characters will be cast wrong in millions of eyes including mine no doubt. But, as with countless other adaptations, if you view the movie as an extension of the book, something to enjoy on it’s own level even though we all know going in it will pale in comparison. I can not wait!